Maria Hepner
Maria Hepner was a Jewish graphologist, nurse and a niece of Alice Salomon.
She was born at the end of the 19th century in Kopanin in what is now Poland and lived on the family estate Heidewilxen, in Berlin, later in Zurich and finally in London together with her twin sister Leonie Cahn.
Alice Salomon
Alice Salomon, born on April 19, 1872 in Berlin as the fifth of seven children in a wealthy Jewish family and died in exile in New York on August 30, 1948, was a pioneer of modern social work in Germany and a prominent representative of the national and international women's movement. With an approach that combined practical experience with theoretical knowledge, she is regarded as the founder of social work as a profession in theory, practice and training in Germany.
Siddy Wronsky
Siddy Wronsky (née Sidonie Neufeld) was born in Berlin on July 20, 1883. Wronsky's father was of German origin, her mother came from Eastern Europe. She began her career as a teacher and later studied special education. From 1908, Wronksy headed the Archive for Welfare Care in Berlin, at that time still a department of the Central Office for Private Welfare, and was a member of the German Association for Public and Private Welfare Care (DV) and the Central Welfare Office of Jews in Germany (ZWST). She was editor of the leading "Deutsche Zeitschrift für Wohlfahrtspflege".
Dr. Margarete Berent
Margarete Berent was born into a Jewish family in Berlin on July 9, 1887. After her teacher's examination, she worked as a teacher and passed her university entrance examination in 1910. She studied law and political science in Berlin, where women had been allowed to study since 1908, but were not admitted to the state law examinations until 1922. In 1913, Berent completed her studies with a dissertation on "Die Zugewinngemeinschaft der Ehegatten". This work laid the foundation for the reorganization of matrimonial property law in 1958.
Jeanette Schwerin
Jeanette Schwerin (née Abarbanell) was born into a socially committed, wealthy Jewish family in Berlin on November 21, 1852. She attended the Academy for the Scientific Education of Young Ladies and took courses in economics and history at university. In 1872, she married the doctor and medical officer Ernst Schwerin, and their Berlin apartment became a center of cultural life.
Hildegard von Gierke
Hildegard von Gierke was born in Breslau on September 30, 1880. Her parents were cosmopolitan and Protestant, her father was a well-known legal scholar and her mother came from a Jewish publishing family.
Dr. Hilde Lion
Hilde Lion was born on May 14, 1893 as the third of four children into a wealthy Jewish merchant family in Hamburg. At that time, women were not allowed to take A-levels or study. Lion initially trained as a teacher. Her work as a teacher sensitized her to the plight of working-class children.
Hertha Neufeld
Hertha Neufeld was born on 14.1.1886 in Berlin and died on 16.1.1975 in London. She was the younger sister of the famous social work pioneer Siddy Wronsky. In Berlin, where she lived until 1938, she held a leading position with the "Jüdische Kinderhilfe e.V." (Auguststrasse), that was founded after the end of the First World War to help immigrants from East European countries and their children. It rendered a variety of services, especially in the fields of health and education.
Mirjam Rosenstein
Mirjam Wolff-Rosenstein (née Rosenblum) was born on 3.3.1911 in Berlin. Her mother was Gertrud Rosenblum-Rosenthal (née Vogelsdorff), who was a director of a business. Gertrud was deported to Riga by the Nazis and was murdered on 9.5.1945. Gertrud's second husband was Erich Rosenthal, who was deported together with her. Mirjam's father was Hermann Rosenblum, and her siblings were Alexander Rosenblum and Eva Thea (Chava) Perls. All three children went to high school. Mirjam attended a Realschule in Berlin and left it in 1928.
Jehudith Ish-Tov Livnat
Jehudith (Hertha) Ish-Tov Livnat (née Loewenthal) was born on 24.11.1906 in Heidelberg (Schildberg). In Berlin-Schöneberg, she trained as a social worker at the Social Women's School (1927/29) and continued her education at the Women's Academy for Social and Pedagogical Women’s Work, both institutions founded by the social work pioneer Alice Salomon. She then worked at the recreation centre for Jewish children and in Jewish health care and specialised in looking after families at the municipal Social Welfare Offices.